0:00

you may tell me hey Matt like you're doing this thing wrong in your campaign I see that as a sign of love the

0:07

opposite of Love isn't hate the opposite of Love is apathy um and so I think shining a spotlight on

0:15

our institutions talking about what we're doing figuring out how we get better and holding ourselves accountable

0:22

and improving is vitally important

0:28

Matt wilshere welcome to the podcast how you doing thank you very much it's great to be here really cool great setting I

0:35

guess folks don't get to see the overall say but this is a really beautiful spot oh thanks you know East Ivy I don't know if you know the history of the property

0:41

so I've been here a couple of times over the last decade or so for different Events maybe some before you owned it

0:48

and in some sense you've had it but a really cool spot but you may have shared with your listeners already but you want

0:53

to walk through the the history well yes I mean it was built in 1867. uh I put a lease option on this thing in 2012. okay

1:00

and uh exercise my right in 2017 running the hospital group Etc amazing and uh yeah then after when

1:08

covet happened uh the the East Ivy LLC everything was shut down right and my

1:14

contract was a little off when it came to the Force Major and so we had to pay

1:20

all the brides back the deposits oh my gosh and so the company was basically bankrupt so I paid them all back

1:26

personally and I was like I was in Mexico working right I don't want to do this anymore anyways and I was going to

1:31

be moving back to Nashville full-time I still always consider myself in Nashville but full-time

1:36

um you know afterwards so yeah we're just getting ready to do a big renovation as my house and uh no more no

1:43

more events no more weddings uh only for your personal friends right that's right the select Universe gets to come and

1:49

check it out well it's gorgeous um and a really exciting spot look you can't beat the location either no I mean

1:56

very cool we Zoom around on our electric bikes um you know you get really get to down

2:01

downtown really fast so it's pretty cool cool stuff so uh tell everybody you know a lot of the the media has been focused

2:08

on like TV commercials and those type of things what they're doing campaigns right but I think there's a whole other demographic in the podcast world and on

2:15

social media yeah and so um you know I couldn't find a whole lot not just about you but about a lot of the candidates

2:22

where there's conversations you get to know them um you know and you can kind of figure out what people are about so I really

2:29

appreciate you doing this and you know I want to hear where are you from obviously Nashville but tell us your story and uh what you're about well

Matt's journey to public service

2:35

thank you for this opportunity you're right it's been sort of a weird race uh and there have not been a lot of

2:40

opportunities to get to know folks in part I think because there's a dozen candidates running and so it's just it

2:46

you know there's you you're sort of Frozen when when you're choosing between three different kinds of bread like you

2:52

can make a decision when there's a dozen kinds of bread you almost get paralyzed I think we've been subjected to a little bit of that in this uh in this race but

2:59

my story is a little bit different from some of the other folks so I mean National native born and raised here

3:05

grew up actually went to middle school about a nine iron from where we're sitting right now Megs Middle School

3:11

went to Aitkin Elementary and then graduated from high school at Hume fog downtown my parents weren't from Nashville but

3:20

moved here so my dad could go to law school my mom was a professor at Fisk and then at Vanderbilt where she helped

3:27

start the women's studies program my dad ended up as a lawyer for the legal aid society which is like the public

3:33

defender but for civil cases instead of criminal cases and so together they helped start the very first neighborhood

3:40

association and that's not part of my story that's their story but I mentioned that because I really did inform sort of

3:45

who I am the values that they instilled in my sister Carrie and me this idea of

3:51

making sure that the city is a city that works for everybody where everybody's got a fair shot an equal shot what you

3:57

make of that shot is up to you but um I think for too long it just felt like

4:02

this City's not been a place where everyone had an equal shot at fulfilling their potential like you have and like

4:08

some folks around this city certainly have so after college went away for college after college worked in the

4:14

private sector for 15 years a couple years in San Francisco six or seven years in New York and then back here for

4:20

six or seven years and I loved that work helping companies grow financing

4:26

businesses enjoyed it but once I moved back to Nashville got more involved in the community I was actually the

4:32

president of the board of Hands-On Nashville um in 2010 when the May floods hit okay

4:39

which was uh crazy time and uh did that and that inspired me to answer the call

4:44

to public service so about a year later 2011 I joined the mayor's office working on economic and Community Development

4:52

did that for eight years under three different mayors and then moved to work at mdha just down the street here their

4:59

headquarters is over in Casey Holmes worked there for three years on affordable housing so that's the short version of my bio okay I got a lot of

5:06

what I when I hit on that one thing that I like is that you went to Public Schools yeah I went to Public Schools

Importance of public schools

5:12

yeah go Bobcats there you go you know but my parents uh working class yeah

5:17

folks and you know I see a lot of candidates that and there's nothing wrong with private schools let me just

5:24

say that no but you know when you go to public schools a certain level of diversity and I think that's important

5:29

especially for people to understand some of the more complex issues you know uh

5:34

if you are just going to a wealthy private school you're around a lot of wealthy people there's a lot of opportunity in that sure but you might

5:41

not completely understand what it's like sure uh so uh kind of talk about that like what was what do you think you got

5:47

out of Nashville Public Schools now running for mayor yeah and uh why should we really encourage others to go through

5:53

that process too well I mean it's so complex I don't want to just go on a 30-minute monologue but but a couple of

6:00

points so I mentioned that I went to human fog and in some ways that's a little bit of a bubble too right

6:05

um but one of the fun things for me thinking about my uh time growing up is that I had friends who lived all over

6:13

the county um and so I went and visited a church a couple of Sundays ago and um it's now a

6:20

Baptist Church but I remember going there in Hermitage when it was a Church of Christ Church uh I went with my

6:26

friend Danny Vaden shout out to Danny Vaden if he's listening here um but but it really is I think you

6:33

touched on it going to public school there's just a diversity

6:38

um you know Geographic diversity sometimes but socioeconomic and um but let me say this I think it is

6:46

absolutely important for every parent to make the right choice for their child

6:51

and so I don't begrudge anyone who chooses to send their kids to public school or to private school parents are

6:57

making the best decisions they can for their kids what I want what I think we need to do as a city is

7:03

make sure that every public school is a great public school so that your parents

7:10

my parents everybody's parents around the county the parents who live in Casey homes the parents who live in Belle

7:16

Meade the parents who live in Antioch are Donaldson Madison jolton believe that their local school is a great

7:24

option for their kids now kids are different so my wife and I have six kids between us we'll talk about that in a

Improving public schools in Nashville

7:30

second I'm sure um but but each of those six kids is different and so it may be that my local

7:35

Zone school is a great school but the better fit for my school for my kid is a school across the county and so I think

7:42

it is important to have diversity and choice but but but it starts with making sure every school is a great school yeah

7:48

you know I look at uh everybody moving to Nashville and you know when people

7:53

move to Nashville in general now they've got some money just in general they've got they've got some money and it's been

7:59

the trend yes and my concern is if they've got money they might not think to put their kids in public schools yeah

8:05

and I think a city is only as good as their Public Schools really in the grand scheme of things I am so blessed I went

8:12

to Overton I didn't go to college I have a just a high school uh Public School Davidson County Education yeah and I'm

8:19

proud of what the what the schools taught me all the things that I learned and I worry that other people aren't

8:25

going to have that opportunity so how I mean and I agree with you I'm not knocking any parents for sending their kids to private school sure but how do

8:31

we how do we do that when they come into the the city how do we encourage them to you know give it a shot yeah so you and

8:38

mookie bets I don't think mookie bets went to college just two random uh Overton grads who kind of found a way to

8:45

make something of their lives um that's pretty awesome so so look here's the deal I think part of it is

8:52

marketing and part of it is improving the product um and and you got to do both actually

8:58

and it's and and they are related to each other so my oldest I mentioned that my wife and I have six kids between us

9:05

um each of the five older kids is attended Metro Nashville Public Schools for at least part of their education

9:11

um and we've gone to every kind of School magnet school private school traditional Zone School charter school

9:18

we've done all the schools Spanish immersion um but but it is about finding the right

9:24

fit for your kid it's about making sure again that we're making the right investments in our schools and then it's

9:30

about marketing it so my oldest son graduated from Hillsboro High School and

9:35

I would say the education that was available to him at Hillsborough is as good as any school in the entire city

9:43

public or private but most parents don't know that don't think that that's

9:49

available to them and so that's what I say about the marketing part of it is communicating to parents and at my job

9:54

part of my job as mayor is going to be holding up our school system you know shining a great Spotlight on the good

10:01

things that are happening while also making genuine Investments and improvements needed to make sure that

10:07

the product and the marketing match each other yeah you know I was reading a statistic that there were 3 000

10:14

approximately three thousand kids in metro public schools that are homeless

10:19

yeah yeah that's another part of it to tackle yeah how do we tackle you know we're trying to have the best possible

10:25

schools and and make them uh to where they're enticing to go to but how do we how do we deal with something like that

10:32

yeah no it's a huge and that and that really is the challenge we're asking our teachers to do an almost impossible task

10:40

we're asking our schools to solve all of society's challenges right kids coming

10:45

into the schools are coming in experiencing poverty in some cases as

10:50

you laid out homelessness um truancy domestic violence uh there

10:56

are a 135 five languages spoken in the homes of the kids who attend Metro

11:03

National Public Schools 135 different languages that is a beautiful thing that is a great thing that diversity the

Challenges faced by teachers in Nashville

11:10

welcomingness of our city talk about people moving here some are moving here with money some are moving here to chase

11:15

their dreams um but the reality is we're asking our teachers to teach and also solve all of

11:22

these other challenges and we've now made our teachers the highest paid teachers in the entire state which is

11:29

good and right because Nashville's the most expensive city in the state but we're not giving them enough resources

11:35

and wrap around services and we're saying to our teachers yeah teach AP Chemistry but also I want you to solve

11:42

the hunger and homelessness that your kids are experiencing when like that's impossible so we got to provide better

11:47

resources better services so that we're not asking our teachers to solve all of society's problems yeah I mean we have

11:54

the highest paid you know teachers in the State uh my argument would be we should shoot for the highest paid teachers in the country heck yeah why

12:00

like how do we make Nashville the best in the country that you know the best for the teachers the best for the city

12:05

employees the best for the the citizens yeah so I mean what's something that we can do or what are some ideas that you

12:11

have to where we can you know bring in higher Talent which I would think would take more pay that's part of those and

12:17

those type of things yeah I think people take jobs for two reasons broadly

12:24

um one is pay right are you fairly compensated for the work that you do

12:29

and the second reason is the psychic benefit I'm gonna have to come up with a better phrase but like the reward it's

12:37

not benefits like health benefits it's like the reward that you receive from doing that

12:42

um you know we talk about this with our police officers yeah police officers in many cases

12:48

um feel like they're under increased scrutiny they're never going to be the highest paid job you can make a lot more

12:53

money doing a lot of their stuff but I think a lot of people say look I feel good about what I did today because I

12:59

helped keep people safe and it's the same with our teachers um our teachers are you know getting

13:04

more pay now but they are coming under such intense scrutiny because of the

13:09

BS political Petty politics gains that are getting played that it's making a

13:16

lot of people say I'm out I'm out like I wanted to enter this profession to help

13:21

kids learn and now you're telling me what books I can and can't read to my

13:26

kids in the classroom uh we gotta we got a one hold our teachers up and hire esteem two give them the resources they

13:34

need to be able to do the job we're asking them to do and then three it's about making sure that they're fairly

13:40

paid for the work they do yeah what do you think about that like as you're talking about it's like the culture wars

13:45

that are kind of going on and it's going on with teachers it's going on with police yeah um you know those are tough jobs to have

13:52

and I think most of them are are great overall there's bad apples in every field but you know you know with the

13:59

culture wars and the books some people feel like uh certain books shouldn't be read to their children yeah um I

14:05

personally think they have a right to not not have certain books read if it's reasonable for sure there's the the

14:10

unreasonable part where you're just like all books are bad that have you know that say a certain thing how do you find

14:17

a balance as mayor uh you know where you where you really build a bridge and bring some common sense rather than

14:23

these uh culture War political arguments yeah no you you hit the nail right on the head right the common sense middle

14:31

of the road stuff um and and there have been a number of things that have happened over the

14:38

course of the past year since I launched my campaign for mayor that have absolutely

14:44

enraged me but I have just bitten my tongue because

14:49

I think like even though it would be politically popular to attack the state legislature certainly in a city like

14:55

Nashville attacking the state legislature when they do some of the stuff that really um upset me personally like when you

15:02

engage in that um that's not what a mayor's race is about uh it's about finding common

15:08

ground doing the basics taking care of picking up the trash filling the potholes

15:13

um while also working in complex areas like education and Public Safety to make

15:18

sure that you're serving the citizens and so I am really not interested in engaging in the partisan political

15:26

battles if I would I'd run for the state senate or you know some other seat that's not what this is about well and

State of Nashville's roads and potholes

15:32

you said back to the basics it's funny because that's what I always say to my entire team that's what I would say when

15:37

I was coaching fighting back to the basics yeah I was doing a video driving driving around Nashville talking about

15:43

the potholes yeah and I hit a giant pothole so funny because the timing was

15:48

perfect perfect yeah Chef's kids how do you fix the potholes yeah part of it is this is just the basic management I mean

15:55

it really is I don't worry about things that I can't do anything about right I don't worry

16:00

about the fact that I'm not six foot six and you know hit 40 from three if I did I'd be in the NBA probably not at 49

16:08

years old but I might have been but I don't worry about that because there's nothing you can do about that but something like potholes and trash pickup

16:14

those are things that are within our control it's just basic management

16:20

um and so it's about making sure that we're putting the appropriate management

16:25

oversight planning ahead so that we're prepared to be able to do basic city services there are some complexities

16:32

some of the roads and there's not a clear marker but the mayor knows some of

16:37

these roads like West End are actually State routes 8th Avenue State Route so

16:44

some of them we need a stronger partnership with the state to make sure

16:49

that we're working collaboratively because there isn't a Democrat or Republican way to repave 8th Avenue it's

16:57

just about getting along and getting this basic stuff done right well one of my best friends growing up works for TDOT and uh every time I ate a pothole

17:04

now I call him too because I'm like this is just a state or it's just a city right but uh you know it you know we're talking about it and there does need to

17:10

be uh a better relationship it seems you know with the city and the state that's

17:16

not a partisan thing it's just a like a basic Common Sense thing to fix the potholes because honestly I'm tired of

17:22

it yeah it's really in Tijuana Tijuana has better roads than many places than Nashville come on yeah just I mean it's

17:28

it's wild and we've got to do better than that yeah yeah make Nashville as

17:33

good as Tijuana it wouldn't have thought that that's what we need to be saying yeah it's it's wild you know I travel a

17:40

lot and I look at the roads and I'm like this is ridiculous if a mirror were to run on I'm gonna fix the potholes

17:46

everybody would vote for them well I I hope you're right because it was the first thing on my website was Back to

17:52

Basics picking up the trash filling the potholes taking care of the basics that stuff drives me nuts talk about the

17:58

trash because like why doesn't the trash sometimes get picked up yeah so the honest answer is we just weren't

18:04

managing it very well so uh some of the trash pickup in Nashville had been

18:09

outsourced uh to another company and that company ran into financial trouble the city wasn't providing adequate

18:15

oversight or supervision um and so then they got into trouble they couldn't do what they were supposed

18:21

to do covet hit um it wasn't we weren't able to get um get the parts to repair trucks that

18:28

were broken down but we had just let trucks get broken down we hadn't done the proper maintenance I mean it's a

18:34

whole series of things that again are just about basic management and

18:39

supervision and you know let's make sure that we have enough staff let's make sure that we have spare parts uh really

18:47

like basic stuff that's kind of mind-numbing um and look even as mayor I'm not going

18:53

to be doing that but I am responsible for it and it's my job to make sure that the team that we've got in place

18:58

supervising it is up to the task and we're doing a better job now some of the folks who are working on that now I want

19:04

to compliment them and Shout them out but um but there was a stretch there where it was just a mess let's talk

19:09

about uh trash downtown yes um when I go downtown at night like I

19:15

actually love the way Nashville's growing I've enjoyed people coming to our city yeah and uh you know just all

19:22

the tourism and stuff that that brings um I love music a lot of my friends are musicians in Nashville

19:29

um I was enjoying Broadway way before anybody was here right uh that said now

19:34

it is a little while not necessarily my style to go downtown sure I understand the draw but when I am down there

Nashville's downtown and tourism industry

19:40

I it smells yeah and I don't want downtown to turn into New Orleans where

19:46

it's considered dirty yeah um one of the issues that I've seen is the trash uh trucks when they put the

19:53

trash in the water and the goop is streams outside yeah you know so there's

19:59

got to be something we can do about that to make sure that doesn't happen you have any ideas have you heard about this

20:05

yeah no I not only I've heard about it I've seen it seen it myself firsthand um so there's a an entity called the

20:12

Nashville downtown partnership that is a sort of public-private partnership that

20:18

um the the guys walking around guys and gals walking around downtown in the yellow shirts the ambassadors those are

20:24

Nashville downtown partnership um folks who are just keeping an eye on safety and cleanliness and providing

20:32

um wayfinding to tourists and so the national downtown partnership has made some good investments in they power wash

20:41

off graffiti they help do some of the clean cleanliness and I think we need to

20:46

make sure that they're keeping up with all the responsibilities that they've got downtown and then on the the trash

20:53

and the trash trucks we need to do a much better job on just spraying the roads off making sure it's clean because

20:59

it look it's critical to Our Success right is it in a city in a state with no

21:05

income tax we need uh tourism dollars in order to to maintain economic success

21:11

but there's got to be a healthy balance living downtown working downtown and playing downtown yeah I mean

21:18

kind of opposite of what you're saying in a way is what Freddie O'Connell he tweeted out I believe today uh going

21:24

after Steve Smith and you know people can say whatever they want about Steve but he did help build that Broadway area

21:29

that is causing the economic boom um you know Tootsie's is legendary uh he's got a few other bars down there I

21:36

mean what what do you think about uh you know basically sound ordinances and and those type of things downtown like as my

21:43

understanding has been proposed yeah I mean I I think this really is this idea of balance and I hated to see this

21:50

political Petty personal attacks back and forth it's

21:55

just not what we need to be doing as a city I think it is absolutely a good

22:01

idea to talk about the issues the substantive issues um things like trash pickup and and some

22:07

of the issues that you raise sound ordinances and other sorts of things I think it is again it's about having a

22:12

balance like the tourism industry in the hospitality industry broadly employs 70

22:19

000 Nash civilians um and um it is absolutely vital but it's about

22:26

making sure that we have a healthy balance and some of the folks involved in the tourism industry have been the first ones to stand up and say look we

22:33

need safer streets we need cleaner community and it's about the private sector doing its part the city

22:39

partnering and doing its part um and I think we need to make sure that that Nashville remains an attractive

22:45

place for folks to visit folks to live and folks to work and that is the hard

22:51

work and when you get into Petty political posturing and back and forth just makes

22:57

that work that much harder yeah you know I I agree with that but at the same time I think that politicians and Freddie is

23:03

a politician politicians take advantage of those things too they did so he's put himself in the situation and and and my

23:11

concern is that you're a nice guy uh you know he's he's taking advantage of it

23:18

and you know it seems like nobody else is saying wait a second this is my position on this this is why I don't

Balance between living, working, and playing in Nashville

23:25

like the petty fighting back and forth but this is what I'm going to do better like what is yours what is your opposite

23:30

solution of what Freddie O'Connell's talking about well look let me just say this I have I talked earlier about

23:36

biting my tongue uh on on some of the actions that state legislature's taking

23:41

uh I am I'm gonna bite my tongue on this as well and and talk substantively about

23:47

the issues um Freddy is a friend of mine he's a good man um and uh but I do think

23:55

um specifically on uh sound ordinances um it's I think we gotta have better

24:02

partnership there's been a number of instances where the city has imposed things meaning to do well I'll give you

24:09

another example uh the uh pedal taverns there were a whole series people were

24:14

upset about pedal taverns there were whole series series of rules and regulations that were imposed and a

24:19

month later they had to repeal most of them because half of them were unenforceable and the other half were

24:25

unconstitutional um you've got to be smart and you've got to start by building Community

24:31

stakeholder support and so I think it is not the right idea to come in and just

24:38

out of the blue impose a bunch of things on people without sitting down and talking to them first understanding

24:43

what's going on and then crafting real solutions that's hard work uh but you're

24:48

right politicians deemed to seem to take swipes and and trust me I've been on the receiving end a number of those and I've

24:55

just chosen to ignore it and if that means I lose the race I'm going to lose

25:00

the race and hold my head up high but I think nashvillians are really hungry for

25:06

that I think National Indians are hungry for someone who's going to tell them the truth they're hungry for someone who's

25:12

gonna say yeah this is really where it is the the Tennessee Titans football stadium deal it's another example

25:18

very unpopular politically and some folks jumped on that train of dumping on

25:23

the thing that's politically unpopular you know what the reality is at Titan's deal if we didn't do the deal

25:29

I'm opposed to subsidies for sports billionaires but we had a choice build a new stadium or repair Nissan stadium and

25:37

repair Nissan Stadium would cost more than a billion dollars more than a billion dollars and the only source of

25:44

funding for that are your property taxes and your sales taxes and I'd rather your property taxes and sales taxes go to

25:51

schools and sidewalks and storm water Improvement instead of going to repair

25:57

Nissan Stadium but that's not the politically popular thing I've just chosen the politically unpopular thing

26:03

because it's the right thing for our city yeah and I want to talk about the whole East Bank development yeah and all

26:09

that stuff I am interested I don't even know what the sound issues are what are

26:14

like what what are they suggesting uh we control sound uh for now the decibels

26:19

downtown I guess what is that yeah I think it the the concern and I I I'm not

26:24

super well versed you know Freddie is the councilman and for downtown so I'm sure he's been dealing with this for the

26:29

last eight years that he's been the councilman representing downtown but I think the concern is that businesses and

26:37

residents there's a tension there now if you live downtown you certainly know the place that you're living in but there

26:43

are at times uh instances where you know bars are competing to get folks to come

26:48

into their establishment totally understandable they're acting the way they should and so they raised the music a little bit hey you want to come in

26:54

here well then the next door one raises their music a little bit and so I think there's a concern about you know is it

26:59

getting too noisy and is that an issue and how do we do that in a fair way it still creates a fun environment but

27:05

doesn't become overwhelming for folks I think that's the tension but to be

27:10

perfectly honest I don't want to get into all the details because I'm not well versed on it this is just what I've heard

27:16

um from the conversations yeah and you know this is one of those conversations that I think is super important because

27:22

it impacts the city so much yeah uh and so you know when I hear that they want want to you know change what the

27:30

decibels are in the in the city I don't really know what it means I try to read about it yeah Freddie's the expert so

27:36

you know but if this guy gets elected for mayor um and maybe he'd be a great mayor I

27:41

don't know that but you know at least explain like now it's a public debate yeah now the city needs to have this

27:47

debate as people who grew up in Nashville we need to know what's going on because you know I actually love it I

27:54

love what's happened to the city I think we can do some really smart things to make it better but whenever a government

28:00

official wants to come in and change laws that is impacting 70 000 jobs it

28:05

better be a conversation with the entire city yeah so that's why you know I I actually I'm going to be digging in not

28:10

necessarily in this conversation but because I want to find out what's going on I might ask you again no great and I

28:16

love to come back on again and chat about it some more I mean I think it is important I think getting you know folks

28:22

involved is awesome that is a great thing so thank you for stepping up to get get involved and and you know figure

28:28

out what the right answer is well and that's one of the things in the communities because my my experience has been I've been so busy working yeah

28:35

sounds like sometimes the loudest neighbors I'm like I wish I squeaky wheels and so you know I wonder how many

28:41

squeaky Wheels we got and there's I mean it's good for Community involvement we we need we need that we need those

28:47

squeaky Wheels sure but we also need some um you know reasonable conversations and thinking within those

28:53

squeaky wheels so the mob uh you know doesn't take over I got attacked by the mob when I first got this place and I

29:00

went to a neighborhood meeting and I'm friends with love names now yeah but I went to the neighborhood me it was like pitchforks yeah I didn't know what had

29:06

happened before but um you know and so a lot of times when that hostility comes out it makes people

29:13

not want to face it invest right they scared off folks warned me before I

29:19

jumped in the mayor's race man you got no idea what you're getting yourself into I haven't run for office before I've been around it as I mentioned

29:25

worked in the mayor's office office but I haven't been a candidate before so it's been an eye-opening experience for me but I'll give you another example of

29:32

of the community engagement process so James a Casey Holmes about three three

29:37

blocks away from where we are right now there's something called The Envision plan to transform Casey it looks like

29:43

you know uh some about that The Envision plan um looks to to redevelop areas of

29:50

concentrated poverty into thriving mixed income mixed-use neighborhoods improve the quality of life for the residents

29:56

for the the surrounding neighbors but when that was first proposed a lot of

Management and supervision in city maintenance

30:02

the residents at Casey were the ones who were most concerned and expressed a lot of resistance they were angry and they

30:09

were afraid they were going to get displaced pushed out of their communities and those Community stakeholder meetings I think were really

30:16

important to building trust and now they're angry again but they're angry

30:23

because it's not happening fast enough yeah they're the ones who are saying hey we want more of this because it's so

30:28

great for us well what what has happened with that like as far as where are we at because we were supposed to be much further along we were and uh what's

30:35

what's going on with with the Envision Casey project so um that I mentioned that I moved to mdha when I left the

30:42

mayor's office in 2019 um it was in part to work on this affordable housing plan that I had

30:47

helped roll out and a piece of that was envisioned Casey unfortunately later in

30:54

2019 that plan was put on the Shelf uh by the new mayor

30:59

um now to his credit uh uh several years later he began reinvesting in that idea

31:06

um but it was just not a priority uh early in the administration and

31:11

um and so there was some some time lost but I I think there's a development going up right now uh cherry oak

31:18

Apartments right next door to mdha's headquarters that I worked on while I was at mdha and actually got Amazon to

31:24

invest seven million dollars in in so we actually brought in private Capital when

31:30

um the public Capital dried up we brought him private Capital to help accelerate the pace of development there there's a lot more work we need to do

31:37

but uh there's a great opportunity well so if if your mayor what would you see like what best case scenario what would

31:44

be your timeline to get that whole project done by the time I leave office

31:54

first term four years re-elected uh four years later the the part of the I

32:00

mentioned that one of the principles is not displacing anyone so the easiest

32:05

thing to do would be to give everybody who lives there today a voucher tell them to go find a place somewhere else

32:11

and then just bulldoze everything um but that's not the right way to redevelop

32:18

um the city has tried that at other times in the past and I think what happens is you end up tearing the social fabric of the networks the people who

32:24

live there and so the the development Redevelopment is sequenced where you

32:30

know you build a building then some folks move into it and then you can tear down the building that they were in and then you can build a new building there

32:36

and then some folks move into it and so you got to do it in a sequential basis and that's one of the things that adds

32:41

to the time yeah I mean because that is the complaint that when those developments happen they get displaced

32:47

they don't you know move back in and I think you know especially for the families that have been here for a long time you know the opportunity that comes

32:54

along with you know going back into a new development uh just like we were talking about going to Public Schools

33:00

that's right you have a lot of diversity I think that's super important um you know East Bank they've been

33:06

talking about that project yeah for a while I know mayor Cooper really wanted to get that done yeah from my understanding

33:11

um what would be your plan uh with East Bank so we talked about timelines you were asking the timeline on Casey I mean

33:18

I think one of the things that I just haven't heard much discussion of in the in the public domain that I want your listeners to

33:25

understand and they may already know this is things like this take a long time I mean not just because the

33:31

government's involved like we're talking about redeveloping a hundred acres in

33:36

the core of downtown um and so just manage folks expectations Titan Stadium is a piece of that but

33:44

what may go over the rest of that footprint I think they're going to be evolving market dynamics evolving

33:51

conditions so a few things one is I think having an Arts District would be

33:56

really important and really attractive so uh TPAC as you probably know is being

34:02

kicked out of the space that they're in today it's got hundreds of millions of dollars of deferred maintenance in that

34:08

building um so tback is being displaced the state has stepped up with some funding and

34:13

promised additional funding if TPAC can match that with some private fundraising to build a new TPAC

34:21

um on the the East Bank I think making sure that there's other opportunities for artists to have work space places

34:28

they can afford to live in that footprint so my hope for the East Bank is that it would include a lot of

34:35

affordable housing and when I say affordable housing I mean a variety of price points um and um and would be an Arts District

34:42

a place like that's what makes Nashville special and different right the city you and I grew up in what makes us truly

34:48

different we don't have beaches we don't have a mountain right what makes Nashville different our beaches are our

34:55

artists our our music artists our visual artists that's what makes Nashville different we need to make sure that as

35:02

the city is growing and developing and changing that it Still Remains a place that artists can and want to move to and

35:08

so I think that's the vision that I have for the East Bank um so a place that locals feel like is

35:14

their place to be I love that I love that yeah that the affordable housing and I was going to ask you a very basic

35:20

question because I hear the term a lot yeah uh but but I want to get into the the artist thing too

35:26

um because a lot of my friends are artists and some of them have made it big now sure but you know uh a lot of

35:34

them haven't right and so probably more haven't than not pursuing there are struggling you know how do you really

35:40

you know create because if Nashville loses the music another issue I have over on um uh Music Row like I see these

35:47

buildings being torn down and it breaks my heart I mean we can't sell the soul of our city yeah you know and music is

35:53

to me one of the big pieces of the Soul 100 of the city so how how do you

36:00

um you know create a city that artists coming in from other parts of the of the

36:07

world um you know can live in might not have a lot of money I mean it might I couldn't my parents couldn't afford to live in

36:13

Nashville when I was growing up right how do we create something that they really they really can yeah so you uh

36:21

opened up with the affordable housing let me just to set the table when I say

36:26

affordable housing I mean housing where you're spending 30 percent of your

36:33

income or less on housing so if you make

36:38

uh you know sixty thousand dollars a year you're spending twenty thousand dollars a year or less on housing that

36:47

to me and that's sort of the definition is Affordable to you so okay if that's

36:52

the criteria then affordable housing means something very different to a

36:58

struggling artist someone who's homeless versus someone who's working a you know uh middle class job versus a lawyer

37:07

um but each of them wants to have housing that they can afford and so I

37:13

say that which probably adds to the complexity and of all this but it's there are different tools that we need

37:20

to use to build each of those houses different Financial tools and different

37:26

ways and and and I you know I've got the experience I've done it I've worked in the trenches on affordable housing

37:33

creating over 4 000 units of affordable housing in just three years that I was

37:38

at mdha using a variety of different tools at KC 500 units at Casey but 3 500

37:45

units around the county um and we've got to use a whole bunch of different tools to make that happen for

37:51

nashvillians and that's critical to your point just tying it all together if artists can't afford to be here

37:56

artists are going to stop moving here and then we lose the soul of the city as you said yeah I mean it's it seems uh

38:03

Common Sense yeah and I think a lot of times you know the shiny object the

38:08

shiny dollar although the city's growing and which I love the growth but I think

38:13

that you know if we sell the soul the city we don't we don't have anything and it's

38:18

not gonna be a place that our kids want to move back to or our parents can afford to stay in right yeah I mean what

38:23

are some of the tools uh you talk about tools what are what are tools that uh we can use as a city if you're a mayor that

38:29

um can bring on affordable housing well this is where the nerdiest of your

38:35

listeners will really start to perk up their ears I'm not going to go into details on any of these unless you really want me to but

38:41

um essentially public housing around Nashville the operating cost of the

38:47

housing like the the money that you've got to spend to heat the buildings to repair the buildings

38:53

um there are another thousand one thousand units of public housing that

38:58

the federal government will pay us the operating dollars on if we just build the housing so for folks who are

39:06

homeless today or making very little money um they need those units those thousand

39:12

units um because they're not making enough money you know even if we were able to build houses really cheaply you can't

39:19

build them cheap enough to make the mortgage low enough to help somebody who's making twelve or fifteen thousand

39:25

dollars a year right you just can't the math doesn't work you know if you're making twelve thousand dollars a year thirty percent of that is uh what is

39:33

that thirty six hundred dollars a year divided by 12 months 300 bucks a month tough to have a 300 a month mortgage

39:39

right so you have to find I hope I did all that math right but anyway yeah someone one of your listeners will check me on

39:46

this um but uh but but you uh but but you need housing like that

39:52

um there there's something called low income housing tax credits uh many of the 3 500 units that I talked about that

39:58

were built around the county were built utilizing low-income housing tax credits um that's best suited for folks who are

40:04

making 60 of area median income so folks who are you know making a little bit

40:10

less than average sixty percent of the average um but are making you know decent money

40:16

um they're tools for that for folks who are making the average folks who are making a little bit more than the

40:22

average for our community um it's about streamlining the regulatory process we've made it too

40:28

damn hard to build stuff in Nashville um and Metro Government is sitting on

40:35

some land that we aren't utilizing to its highest and best use and so unlocking some of those Parcels of land

40:42

where we ought to be building housing each of those kinds of tools those are three or four of the tools but there's

40:47

probably three or four others that I didn't even mention here yeah yeah I'm glad you brought that up because the the regulations for building I mean uh codes

40:54

uh it doesn't get talked about a lot in the city but it's so important yeah and

41:00

I guess what Bill Herbert was there yeah man look at you shouting out head of the codes Department well I mean impressive

41:06

I mean well I mean it goes Byron Hall's head right now yeah but you know you look at their job was so dang hard yeah

41:14

and it still is yeah it's like and I don't feel like it's being talked about you know you go down there now and it's

41:20

it's not the the the fault of the has those departments they need more people are you gonna try to get more people in

41:27

there for them absolutely not just more people but there's been a real brain drain uh you mentioned Bill uh John

41:34

Michael who's a zoning administrator but there's been a whole series of folks who have left Public Service

41:40

um in part because of this this issue that we talked about earlier um one is pay and two is the reward that

41:48

you get from doing your job and they just it there wasn't good enough leadership and appreciation of Metro

41:56

employees and it just I think you know a lot of them have told me I'm not saying John Michael or Bill Herbert

42:01

specifically I'll leave them out but other folks who've left Metro said man I just like felt like we were getting

42:07

beaten up for doing our jobs and um and then needs to be a lot more

42:13

appreciation pat on the back here we go let's go team like anybody else would want from their job and there wasn't

42:19

enough of that and there will be when I'm mayor yeah so I mean I guess uh you would be a pro-business mayor for sure

42:26

yeah so I mean and you know when people look at the other candidates I know you don't want to go at other candidates was fine but when people look another

42:33

candidates some of them to me are not um you know talk about what being a

42:38

pro-business mayor in the city means and how you balance it with doing also the right thing for the entire Community

42:44

yeah I mean look the the good news is being a pro-business mayor which I would

42:50

say Carl Dean was which I would say Phil bredesen was um and and I think you know there are a

42:56

number of the other Mayors uh I mean Bill Purcell I'm not sure most folks would characterize him as you know that

43:02

wouldn't be the first thing if they'd say he's the neighborhood mayor um but he did a lot there was a lot of

43:07

great economic expansion that happened when bill was mayor Purcell um and so it is about having a strong

43:15

business environment for really I mean there's a lot of reasons but there are two that are most important to me

43:22

first is Carl Dean always said there is no government program as good as helping

43:31

somebody get a job you really want to improve somebody's life help them get a job

43:37

right when someone's got a job the sense of Pride and achievement the opportunity to help their family improve like that's

43:45

an important thing that comes from having a pro-business environment where folks feel like there there isn't a

43:51

bunch of roadblocks and red tape to them trying to start a business or grow a business um so that's the first reason I think

43:57

it's important to be pro-business and the second reason is like that actually generates revenue for our city I mean

44:03

half of the city budget is from property taxes about 20 22 percent is from sales

44:10

taxes and the balance is from transfers from the state government

44:15

from the federal government and then fees and fines that the city collects parking tickets and vehicle registration

44:21

fees but half of the revenue comes from property taxes well if we aren't building buildings they're not we're not

44:28

growing our tax base and so it's about doing it in a way that is respectful of communities and neighborhoods like we

44:35

let businesses close too many streets when they're building a building we need to hold them accountable say all right

44:40

look yes we want you to build a building but you got to make sure the sidewalks stay open gotta make sure the lanes of

44:46

traffic stay open it's hard enough to get around Nashville again it's this idea of balance and it's not easy

44:51

doesn't come with slogans it just comes with the hard work of doing business well for the city yeah I mean it's it is

44:58

it is a balance you know overall where um you know the traffic issues do get

45:04

pretty crazy when they're in the building we should hold them accountable um I also look at some of the tax breaks

45:09

some of the different buildings downtown you know receive and I I understand there's a there's a reason

45:15

you know there's incentives and the city grew because of certain uh tax breaks but I also think that you know if you

45:21

don't watch it and you get government too involved with the corporations you know how the corporatocracy uh which we

45:27

might have right now uh in the United States yeah so you know how would you balance you know giving incentives but

45:35

not giving too much yeah I I think different tools are appropriate for

45:41

different times so when I started in the mayor's office the unemployment rate was over eight percent as I mentioned

45:47

um and in that environment I just hear Carl Dean's words there's no government program as good as helping somebody get

45:53

a job um and um but when unemployment's at two or three percent or even maybe four

45:59

percent you don't need to be pouring gasoline on the fire there's no reason to be offering incentives out to folks

46:06

to get them to move here so I I think there are different tools that are appropriate for different times and I

46:12

think what's most important and the way you make that that decision is is Nashville better off in each opportunity

46:20

that we have in front of us are the citizens of Nashville the people who built this city the people who live here

46:26

are they better off if this happens or not um and so yeah I think there were some

46:31

incentives that have had a massive Roi for their our city and there are other times where we rightly said no we're not

46:40

going to do that now we don't need to provide an incentive and some of those companies came and we there were some

46:46

opportunities we missed out on um and companies that chose not to move here because the city wasn't more

46:52

aggressive with incentives and that's okay look you're not going to get back to the second baseball reference back to

46:57

Mookie Betts you know you're not gonna you're not gonna hit every pitch but you know you got to do a good job so

47:03

yeah it's just a like again it's it's a balance and um and it's about trust too people need to be able to trust the

47:09

government yeah that you're doing a good job and if you get out of whack out of balance people stop trusting the

47:14

government and that's when things really go downhill well and there's there's really not a lot of trust in the

47:20

government overall right now in the in society I think at the city level yeah it's really where it starts yes um I

47:27

mean it's it's a it that's the community and you can bring it back the quickest right now if we're to talk about

47:34

National political issues like what do you do you know I I don't know it's like how do you build the bridges how do you get people back to actually having

47:40

conversations but you know at the city level yeah I feel like you can make that bigger impact because you know we're a

47:47

community and word gets around you know quicker per se absolutely and those type

47:52

of things I think no I think you're exactly right and you've hit on the most critical thing look it's not just in government although I think it's

47:57

certainly true in government that there's just a lack of trust in large institutions right now I mean the church

48:05

the media big business I mean I think Americans broadly don't trust

48:12

organizations so how do we what do we do about that do we just let it go and that's just the way it is now

48:18

or they're things that we can do and what I think and what I will do as

48:23

mayor is shine a real big Spotlight on what we're doing so I received the

48:30

endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police received the endorsement from the police department I will tell you I was

48:35

a little bit surprised because in my interview with the police I argued

48:40

strongly maybe even got a bit debating with them about the community oversight

48:46

board I think the community oversight board is a great thing for the police department now look the community

48:52

oversight Board needs to be held to high standards it should involve people who are well informed about the issues and

48:58

they need to you know do their work just like we need to hold the police accountable they need to be held

49:04

accountable but I think shining a spotlight on what we're doing and being open and transparent and and taking

49:12

criticism like you may tell me hey Matt like you're doing this thing wrong in

49:18

your campaign I see that as a sign of love that's not that's not the opposite

49:23

of Love isn't hate the opposite of Love is apathy um and so I think shining a spotlight on

49:31

our institutions talking about what we're doing figuring out how we get better and holding ourselves accountable

49:37

and improving is vitally important and I think that's how we rebuild public trust and I think you're exactly right that it

49:44

starts at the local level absolutely you hit on the police and um you know the

49:50

Metro Police Davidson County Police I mean I think we might have one of the best police forces in the country I mean

49:57

they have uh a man know a lot of the cops are trained a lot of cops uh I know

50:03

you know I'll hear when they get into scuffles and what they're thinking and you know now I guess take it back 2006 I

50:10

was a very big proponent of police wearing cameras and my point to it was that you know we don't see what goes on

50:17

in the hood when they're you know getting in fights and sometimes they get taken too far and I think that they

50:23

should be held accountable to that now the opposite of that is something that's happened as well where you see all the

50:29

crap they go through yeah and you know 99 of the time they are in the right

Police accountability and body cameras

50:35

absolutely and I I think that's another thing where there should be a balance because we've taken one idea to where we

50:41

protect the community Through cameras and making sure that our uh police are held accountable but then it goes the

50:47

other way where 100 we see it's being held against them and we've got to create a you know some type of

50:53

reasonable balance in between those two things what are your thoughts on that well look let's take a step back for a

50:59

second and let's all you me and your listeners are listeners think about what we ask

51:07

our police to do we are asking folks human beings

51:13

brothers and sisters to us to run in on an unpredictable schedule

51:18

they don't know when they're going to get called into an emergency could be 10 times in a day and could be not for two

51:24

or three days but they're called in on an unpredictable schedule into a quickly

51:31

moving situation with imperfect information and they are asked to make

51:37

what are sometimes life and death decisions I mean that's astounding

51:43

like my job feels busy sometime but it ain't that right it ain't being called in on

51:50

an unpredictable basis into a uncertain situation with imperfect information and

51:57

make life-changing decisions and they do that every day so acknowledging that that's what

52:03

happens I think it is reasonable to say yeah we should have body-worn cameras I

52:09

think that's a great development so that exactly as you said the police can be held accountable but

52:15

mostly the citizens can be held accountable too like we should all just be open and transparent about it and and

52:22

it's not about gotcha it's about hey okay here's what happened like let's learn how we can be better

52:29

and there there are certainly some really tragic situations that have occurred

52:35

um and there are folks who make some bad mistakes sometime um and I will just say when folks make

52:42

mistakes they need to be held accountable when I make mistakes I should be held accountable and

52:50

um and and I but I think it's also important to hold up in the highest regard the people who every day but

52:56

their lives on their lines to protect us um and and I think it is an incredible thing that that these folks do yeah I'm

53:02

glad you said that because you know it's uh some people are afraid to say that nowadays for whatever reason and uh you

53:09

know that's uh I I agree with you and I think they're they're putting their lives on the line um and uh they don't get enough credit

53:15

you know in many many situations um you know what do you think you know moving on to about the transportation

53:22

issues that we're dealing with in Nashville right now um how like what what do you see the

53:27

problems in the transportation and and what would you do as mayor so um these

53:33

are I feel like a broken record these are all very complex and I want to try and keep it interesting

53:39

um I'm gonna put this into two categories one is with the transit infrastructure

53:45

that we have today the roads the Music City Star um is that is traffic moving through

53:52

that Network as efficiently as possible and the answer to that is no it is not

53:57

we have not synchronized our traffic lights in 10 years or more um we don't have uh interactive

54:04

responsive light signals so you may be sitting at a light for you know a minute with no traffic going the opposite

54:10

direction and then you move to the next light instead of that one for a minute that drives me nuts um and so we should

54:16

have when you're we need to make some Investments to have a traffic Network operation Management Center and make

54:24

investments to improve the throughput of the structure infrastructure we have today it's also making some investments

54:32

in our bus system to have a better bus system so those are operational improvements to improve the throughput

54:37

we have today longer term we need to make some investments in a mass transit system and

54:45

I've talked from the beginning of my campaign about the first investment that we should make I don't know have you

54:51

ever been to Denver I have been a Denver um I think the Denver Airport's located somewhere in Kansas I'm not sure where

54:57

it is way out side of town but the mass transit the light rail that they've got

55:04

from the Denver Airport to downtown Denver is fantastic and the advantage that we have is that our airport is

55:10

located seven miles from downtown and so we ought to have mass transit from the

55:16

airport to downtown along Murfreesboro Pike we're not actually doing that for

55:21

the tourists although it will be great to pull traffic off of I-24 to pull traffic off of I-40 so that nashvillians

55:29

can get through those routes better but the real benefit of doing that is

55:34

that we can build affordable housing housing where you're spending 30 percent of your income or less affordable

55:40

housing along a redeveloped Murfreesboro Pike so that folks who work downtown you

55:48

talked about Hospitality folks musicians folks who work downtown can get to work

55:53

without having to pay 40 or 50 dollars for parking so the opportunity to do this the other Advantage we have is that

56:00

because the 55 Murfreesboro is the highest ridership bus line that we have today we can get the federal government

56:06

to pay for 60 or 70 percent of the cost of it so let's build

56:11

a a the beginnings of a Transit skeleton and let's start by investing there it's

56:17

a cost-effective investment for the city to make to begin to build a Transit Network yeah so uh you know with the transit you

56:25

know we talk about light rails and I guess the the project I don't know how many eight years ago or so was talk

56:31

about putting a bus lane in the middle of the city uh forget what that was called maybe a lot longer um my thoughts a little different and

56:39

what are things going to look like in 15 or 20 years and you know to me when I hear trains

56:47

and I'm not saying we shouldn't do a light rail there I think that's a good idea but when I hear trains when I hear buses I'm like running through trains

56:54

like 100 years ago yeah I mean buses uh you know that's at least 70 years old

56:59

right how do we build a city in the future though yeah like it's a great

57:04

question and and let me let me add a couple of things there um I think you're exactly right that's

57:11

what we need to make sort of cost effective Investments uh in a Transit Network so the amp was what was proposed

57:19

uh in 20 13 2012 2013 yeah like 10 years ago and

57:25

then the big one the depending upon how you characterize it the five billion dollar investment or the nine billion

57:32

dollar investment was 2018. uh it was let's move Nashville and that was the

57:37

one where there were sort of five different Light Rail and and bus Rapid Transit and a bunch of different things

57:43

so part of the issue is that Nashville still has a relatively

57:49

low residential density we just aren't a very dense City the population density

57:55

of Nashville is about 1400 people per square mile

58:00

just that that number won't mean much to very many people but by contrast Madrid is 14

58:06

000 people per square mile I know Madrid off the top of my head because someone was saying we should build a transit system like Madrid's transit system and

58:13

I was like I wonder what the population density of Madrid is I was like it's 14 000 people per square mile 10 times

58:20

Nashville what makes sense is Madrid is not going to make sense in Nashville we need to build something that makes sense

58:26

for us today but to your point also for the city of the future and I personally

58:32

really hope autonomous vehicles work out yeah and if they do

58:38

Everything Changes yeah well everything changes they're going to work out yeah I mean there's no doubt about it because

58:43

you know 10 years from now that they should be fully I you know this is there's no statistics 10 years fully

58:50

functional I mean AI is hitting the a level of spitting out information

58:55

um Elon is very very far ahead of everybody else when it comes to that his cars I mean he's gotten some heat but

59:02

it's pretty much it's it's almost there so 10 years you know let's say it happens while you're mayor yeah like how

59:09

do you act quickly it's going to be massive I mean I I hope that's right

59:15

um I think they're going to be some impediments now we're getting super wonky here I mean Insurance like what

59:21

happens if an autonomous vehicle that's not being driven by anyone you know runs into another vehicle who's responsible

59:27

what's the insurance what's the regulatory framework I think you're right the technology is moving rapidly

59:32

how the regulatory framework uh matches it while we have human driven vehicles

59:38

and autonomous vehicles on the road at the same time I think there's going to be a lot of complexity work to work

59:44

through but whenever it happens and I agree with you I think it will at some point it will massively change the way we

59:50

function as a society we won't need parking garages anymore I

59:56

mean think about every office building that's built with a couple thousand parking spaces in it like we will need

1:00:01

to repurpose that space we only use our vehicles

1:00:07

four percent of the time 96 of the doubt of the day a vehicle is

1:00:14

parked somewhere but if we have autonomous vehicles like I don't I don't

1:00:21

it doesn't Park like I call a you know ride share app Lyft or Uber or whatever

1:00:27

the equivalent is in the time and a vehicle pulls up and I get in and it takes me where I need to go and then I

1:00:32

get out and it goes and it picks up someone else like literally we won't need I mean we'll need some parking

1:00:38

garages but many fewer that will rapidly change the built environment

1:00:43

um the interstates we we say we don't have enough roads today when fully autonomous vehicles come into existence

1:00:50

we have more than enough roadway infrastructure

1:00:55

um because they're just going to move better and faster yeah um it won't be accidents

1:01:01

um 30 000 people 35 000 people die every year in traffic accidents like there

1:01:07

won't be there won't be drunk driving it'll be computers uh so it will radically change the way we function as

1:01:13

a society and it will significantly alter the built environment in Nashville so I'm not predicting it's going to

1:01:20

happen in the next eight years um but if it does and if as we see that coming on the horizon we're gonna need

1:01:25

to make some significant adjustments to how we function as a city um it will it will change a lot of things I think it'd be great if

The future of AI and autonomous cars in Nashville

1:01:31

Nashville was a Ford uh thinking City agree into that uh you know AI is is

1:01:37

another one you know I mean there's AI with the autonomous driving but uh

1:01:43

the your aai uh like chat gbt right now is getting pretty popular we use it in

1:01:48

science uh a lot obviously although what's I don't think I think autonomous

1:01:54

cars will be uh here before AI really making good medical decisions because

1:02:00

the data for the medical decisions isn't that good that's a whole other subject

1:02:05

but yeah when you know something about with your own personal experience yeah it's data's data is everything and a lot

1:02:11

of hospitals have different data you can't actually there's no way the AI can differentiate but

1:02:16

um you know AI is coming you know at a extremely fast pace

1:02:21

um whoever is the next mayor if they're mayor for eight years will be facing an

1:02:26

AI Revolution yeah that like I would I would bet you feel confident about oh

1:02:32

yeah yeah oh yeah um it's coming yeah and you know the thought process is something that we can't you know even

1:02:38

understand I think that you know conversations that at

1:02:44

I would hope the next mayor would lead in a way where he could have

1:02:49

the conversation about what it means to the world yeah because we will be in

1:02:55

Revolutionary times yeah truly yeah you know and there's going to be some tough tough questions yes that I don't think

1:03:03

any mayor can just know we've got to listen to a lot of expert people yeah a

1:03:09

lot of different people well look you mentioned just to tie this thread back you mentioned the codes Department right

1:03:14

that's one example um today we can't get building permits approved because we don't have plan

1:03:20

approval but that's something that's like ought to be pretty easy to automate

1:03:26

right uh their you know wait times could go from two months to two seconds like

1:03:32

oh yes you meet the requirements stamp uh like that process is one within

1:03:40

that's you know been a function of government uh that could be rapidly automated uh theoretically so so yeah no

1:03:46

it will absolutely impact the next mayor um and and I think we need look when I was in the mayor's office of Economic

1:03:52

and Community Development um I actually helped put together a grant proposal um and an application really to Google

1:03:59

to have Nashville be one of the sites where they were testing um autonomous vehicles

1:04:05

um and unfortunately we didn't win that but um we need to be much more aggressive about staying on The Cutting Edge of

1:04:11

these things because you're either innovating or you're getting left behind yeah and Nashville has this potential

1:04:17

right now uh you know we've seen it explode just the last seven years eight years ten years

1:04:23

um but we could be on the Forefront and I I do I I want more candidates I'm not

1:04:29

I haven't been super inspired by this Mayoral race you know and I know I want to be sure

1:04:34

um and I want candidates to you know realize where we're at this is in the

1:04:40

next eight years yeah it's going to be uh you know it's going to be revolutionary yeah and

1:04:46

I look at for instance uh one of the questions I ask myself like would I have supported Cooper uh who I did support

1:04:54

last uh Mayoral race if I uh knew the kind of mirror he would be during covid

1:05:00

and the answer to that is no and there's reasons for that whatever but you know

1:05:06

voting for this next mayor people need to be asking those questions that's what I'm looking at I'm like will this person

1:05:12

be good for the future that they probably don't even know you know you you do I mean you seem to know about it

1:05:19

but I don't know if everybody knows about what's what's coming yeah well look you know you're exactly right to be

1:05:24

asking the questions the way you are um because let's think about the last few Mayors right certainly mayor Cooper

1:05:31

when we were having the election in 2019 no one right um and certainly then the bombing

1:05:38

and the direct show I mean and for mayor Dean when he was running in 2007

1:05:45

um it was before the Great Recession uh no one had thought about the May 2010 floods the most significant things that

1:05:54

Mayors face and that's probably true for you know Governors and president and others as well CEOs of companies that

1:06:02

are things that you don't know when you're going into it yeah and so I think

1:06:07

asking the question what you're doing in a few different ways in a few different subjects you care about what my position is on education you care about what my

1:06:14

position is on Public Safety you care about what my position is on affordable housing and I think I'm good on all

1:06:19

those but what you really should care about is is this person

1:06:25

prepared to deal and would she or he approach a situation that is unforeseen

1:06:33

today in a way that I would feel comfortable with their leadership

1:06:38

and you know look each of the candidates running I hope is going to make the case in their own way you know I I am someone

1:06:44

who believes in team building Innovation not being the smartest person in the room if I'm the smartest person in the

1:06:51

room I'm in the wrong damn room I need to go get in a different room um and I think it's about finding people

1:06:56

who are going to be able to build a team take ideas you know get constructive

1:07:01

criticism and and be able to publicly communicate because I think that's an

1:07:06

important part of it effectively communicate the things that you're doing and why you're doing them and and and

1:07:12

motivate folks um and uh and I think I you know I think I can do that but that's what you and

1:07:19

the other voters will have to decide yeah that that's that's that's good and you know what I like about what what

1:07:25

you're saying is you know realizing that you know none of us are the smartest

1:07:31

person in a room I guess except that one person on maybe one subject but you know what I'm saying Ken Jennings from Jeopardy or whatever we go you know but

1:07:37

you know we look at the impoverished communities and you know the the

1:07:42

messaging right now and I think you have a positive message but I I how we talk

1:07:49

to people I think is important and uh there's you know we use words like

1:07:55

marginalized and oppress you look at the word marginalized marginalized basically means hopeless or uh no power

1:08:03

um and I wonder if the words that we're telling people because thoughts are things we are words

1:08:10

matter words matter I wonder if you know if there's other language that could be

1:08:16

used uh then that yeah because to me it puts them down you know and I don't want

1:08:22

to give a handout I want to give a hand up and what's your position on that there's a quote I think it was maybe a

1:08:28

George Bush quote um and it was the soft bigotry of low expectations

1:08:35

um I think that's the quote someone will Google it while we're on the show here um but that is something that I really

1:08:42

subscribe to that people live up to the expectations that we set for them and

1:08:49

there are certainly outstanding exceptional people you and I'm not just saying this because I'm on your show you

1:08:55

are an exceptional person you've done an exceptional thing in a couple of different areas with the MMA business

1:09:00

with the hospital um people are always gonna there are going to be people who do exceptional

1:09:06

things um but I very strongly believe that each of us lives up to the expectations the

1:09:13

expectations we set for ourselves and the expectations that others set for us and I suspect I don't know that some

1:09:21

combination of you your parents said yeah you can go do stuff and you were

1:09:27

dumb enough to believe that you could go do something something totally absurd like you know who goes and buys a closed

1:09:35

Hospital in another country like that's insane man um but but the things that motivate me

1:09:42

are giving everyone that belief and self-confidence and and

1:09:49

not that everyone needs to go do some crazy Outlanders thing I think it's awesome when someone's belief in

1:09:56

themselves is like you know what I can be a really great husband and I'm going to be home for dinner every day at 5 30.

1:10:03

and I'm gonna be truly curious about my kids life and I'm gonna be the best

1:10:09

member of my church or baseball team whatever it is my point is

1:10:15

not about the thing itself my point is about believing in people and creating systems and structures that say to

1:10:22

people we believe in you and that for me and I think it's true for what you were talking about that's what's important

1:10:28

about public education that that's what's important because today here's the data

1:10:34

the tuition at elite private schools is thirty two thousand dollars a year and the per capita spending for kids in

1:10:42

Metro Nashville Public Schools even after we have raised teacher pay significantly we are spending 16

1:10:50

000 per year for each kid in Metro Nashville Public Schools and I we

1:10:56

discussed earlier the challenges the kids are bringing in the classroom and I'm not saying we should double the school's budget I don't think there's an

1:11:02

appetite for that right now and I'm not even saying it's the right thing to do but I am saying as a society we're saying hey you kids over here you're

1:11:09

worth thirty two thousand dollars a year and hey you kids over here you're worth sixteen thousand dollars a year and

1:11:16

words matter budgets matter expectations matter and

1:11:22

the expectation I set is that Metro Nashville can have the best performing public education system in the entire

1:11:29

country I love it and we'll do it by the time I'm out of office now that's that's awesome I mean I I I'm very much support

1:11:35

of that I think the public schools as you've heard yeah is I'm grateful I'm grateful for my teachers I'm grateful

1:11:42

for my coaches and uh coach Gabriel you're a wrestling oh yeah Ralph Gabriel yeah yeah Ralph Gabriel

1:11:48

was my wrestling coach at May's there you go in middle school yeah coach game listen a dude is an amazing human being

1:11:55

he is he one of my biggest Inspirations even this day and I've got to work with some great coaches yeah I still think

1:12:02

Gabe was the best I mean we won three state championships at Overton we thought we could do anything come on I

1:12:09

mean it was yeah and that was Gabe we believed in Gabe maybe I was he and he believed in you he did he believed in us

1:12:15

every kid deserves that yeah now that's that's uh that's really cool that is so

1:12:21

funny by the way I was a terrible wrestler I was I was this height and uh 112 pounds uh six foot whatever I am six

1:12:29

one six two um I basically my my strategy was sprawl right uh that was it uh so I was a

1:12:36

terrible wrestler but he was a great coach no absolutely we have so many stories with Gabe he he would we were

1:12:43

wrestling at the Reno Tournament of Champions and we couldn't it was snow everywhere and so we couldn't get a

1:12:49

flight out and I forget what airport we flew into Gabe put uh chains on the

1:12:55

tires to get us you know up the mountain I remember sleeping we were exhausted but he got us there and uh you know

1:13:02

those are the stories of Davidson County Metro teachers that I don't people need

1:13:08

to hear more about people like him or I mean there's so many teachers uh you

1:13:13

know that I had that were awesome it and now they get they get harassed in many

Matt's experiences with education and teachers

1:13:19

ways but you know just like anything there's a couple bad but most of them are awesome awesome well and I'll give

1:13:25

just one more hey let's turn into Ralph Gabriel appreciation show um what I remember that he was one of

1:13:31

the best teachers I had he was my seventh grade science teacher so I'd come from Aiken I'm a new student at Megs and um we walk into biology class

1:13:39

and there are four chalkboards full of notes and he taught four chalkboards of

1:13:46

notes the first day the second day it was four new chalkboards worth of notes and it was like holy I mean I don't

1:13:53

actually remember exactly what happened but my memory is like whoa this dude is

1:13:59

expecting us like this is like college level stuff it wasn't college level stuff I was in seventh grade but it was

1:14:05

just a different expectation man it was it was different so yeah we should have that yeah absolutely

1:14:13

um well I guess you know in closing we've been going for about an hour and a half now oh my gosh I think so holy smokes um summer I think we started

1:14:19

around what one or uh 2 15 ish uh you know in closing what would you say to

1:14:26

the the people of Nashville about why they should vote for you and the impact

Closing remarks and Matt's vision for Nashville's future

1:14:32

that you would have as mayor yeah well thank you for this opportunity to come

1:14:37

on your show thank you for this opportunity to talk to folks um here's what I would say like I think

1:14:43

this city is capable of unbelievable things and I'd rather be Nashville than

1:14:48

any other city I mean we talk a lot about the challenges that our city is facing but what city would you rather be who would you trade for do you rather be

1:14:56

Detroit would you rather be uh Cleveland would you rather be Charlotte would you

1:15:01

rather be Austin uh even you know other successful cities no I'd rather be Nashville than any of those cities so I

1:15:08

think the potential and opportunity in Nashville is Limitless um there are real challenges that we are

1:15:14

facing as a city I think I've got a proven track record of taking on big challenges when unemployment was eight

1:15:20

we added 42 000 jobs and brought unemployment down to 2.0 it was the

1:15:26

lowest of any City in the entire country when I worked on affordable housing we built over 4 000 units in three years so

1:15:34

I've got a track record I've taken on big challenges and I think I'm prepared to do that for the city that we're in

1:15:40

today but I'm asking for your help because nobody does this alone and I

1:15:46

believe that you and me together with all the ideas that we have in the city and the opportunities the resources can

1:15:52

make Nashville an even better City than it is today and the future will be so

1:15:58

bright for all of us and I'm excited to have this conversation this year next

1:16:03

year eight years from now about the incredible things that we're going to do as a city so thank you all right well Matt thanks for coming on and I look

1:16:10

forward to seeing what happens August 3rd let's go I'm asking for your vote I'm asking for your vote we can make

1:16:15

this happen together all right thank you thank you